Hello! I'm here with another chapter (cliffhanger)

Thank you, DangerousFox! I'll be sure to live up to your expectations then!

Anyways, announcement at the bottom, so make sure to read a little!


Chapter Eight: Connect

He wakes up into the dark, lying on cold floor covered in blood.

Makoto sits up, feeling the freezing air around him. He isn't even sure what's happening, so he just stands and looks around.

The… it's not even a room, it's just an endless, unrelenting dark spreading across the horizon. He could hear blood humming in his head, his heart beating against his ribs. His breath is cold and he feels his lung freezing from inhaling the frigid air.

You're mine.

A voice says, from above, from below, from everywhere and nowhere. Makoto turns around, trying to find the source, but he sees nothing.

And then, pain.

Pain in its purest form, everywhere and nowhere, all at once. He couldn't even scream. All he can manages is falling down to his knees, his breaths quickening and his hands fly up to his chest, gripping and tearing at it.

I'll kill you. For certain, this time.

He looks up and sees that same pulsating heart, glowing with blood-red light and beating into his head — thud. Thud. Thud. The sound gets louder, and before long it's beating inside his skull.

You are mine, Yuuki Makoto!

He gasps awake.

"Oh! You're up," Ryoji says, munching on a snack with one hand while the other scrolls through the phone. Makoto's heart is still beating loud in his chest and his ears are ringing. The moon's still bright in the sky, so he guesses he crashed right after returning from dinner. He blinks a few times, still unsure on what he had just seen and heard.

His lack of response causes the other to look at him again, fingers stop moving.

"Makoto?"

"I'm fine," He says, touching his head reluctantly, his eyes looking at nowhere in particular. "Just… nightmare."

"Oh," Is all the other boy says before he finishes his dessert and puts his phone away. "You can go shower. I already took mine."

"'Kay," He nods dumbly, sitting up straight.

What the flying fuck did he just dream about?

.

Once his head's clear, he comes out of the shower to Ryoji waiting for him by the laptop (at least that one was bought) with an earbud in his left. Makoto walks over and sits on the chair next to him, putting the earbud in his right.

"What're we doing?" He questions, hand blindly grabbing the first thing in front of him. A bag of roasted almonds. He shrugs and pops the bag open and starts munching.

Ryoji just shrugs and starts playing YouTube videos that Niijima had mentioned. It's a playlist of MMA fights. Makoto groans while Ryoji laughs at him. "Come on, Makoto. It's not that bad!"

"I know that," He then sighs, eyeing the Evoker he… how did it come to him? All he remembers is the thing forming in his hand out of thin air. "We should try entering the Metaverse again. Just to get used to doing things."

Ryoji face falls slightly, but he nods. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Tomorrow, though. And we're using these as references for future fights, of course."

"Yeah," He nods. "Right, let's get started."

He watches with marked disinterest at the MMA footages, making small notes at the back of his mind about this and that that he finds might help in a fight. He absently eyes his Evoker again, a nagging feeling of dread crawling up his spine and settling neatly in his stomach.

Then he catches Ryoji looking at him. "…What?"

"I'm as suspicious about the Evoker as you are, you know."

He winces a little and looks away. Well, they did have a theory that Amamiya and his group acquired their own ways of calling out their other selves within the Metaverse, but what makes it doubtful is the fact that it took the form of his Evoker…

…And that it took away some of his memories.

He doesn't remember the second half of their exploration, only maybe bits and pieces. Every time he tries to think about it, his head would get heavy and his recollection hazy, at best. And everything Ryoji told him is just… new, a bit out of places. The only thing that actually makes senses coming out of the other boy's mouth is the name of his Persona, Ifrit.

Makoto groans and slams his head back into the table, his hand absently slaps at the pause button. He ignores Ryoji's whines and sighs loudly. "And here I thought all these shits couldn't get worse."

"I don't think anything could get worse than being dead, though," Ryoji says with a snicker. Then, his grin falters. "But yes, I think we might've just bitten off a bit more than we could chew."

"Well, time to pull another miracle out of my ass, or something," He mumbles off-handedly.

"Makoto, that is not funny."

"It kinda is, though," He counters, scratching his head slightly.

Ryoji looks like he wants to protest, gaping like a fish a few times. In the end, he throws up both of his hands "Fine! It's just a teensy bit funny. Now shush and let's actually finish watching this, then we'll discuss about the Evoker later."

"Ryoji, I think your priorities are getting kind of mixed up."

They share a few laughs and bicker for a while before settling themselves down.

Makoto shoves the feeling of dread away into the furthest corner of his mind. He'll take care of that later; for now, he has other things he still needs to think about.


Heavy silence hangs over them.

Ren and Makoto are still quiet and pale, the face of that stranger, staring blankly into nothing as he walked into traffic and was sent flying into the air, is seared into his head, and Ren hates that. He shakes his head and cradles it in his hand as he sighs heavily.

Recounting the events to everyone is hard, but he had to. When he's done, there's nothing but sounds of cloth rustling and occasional coughs that fill the air. He scratches his head before sitting up straight, trying to not sound terrible (which he thinks he still does) as he speaks. "Raoul said this is the work of Shadows. That means Yuuki isn't the last… and this is just the beginning of something terrible."

"You said he looked blank and shuffling like he had no goal, right?" Akechi speaks, brows knotted together, a finger on his chin. Ren nods. "Sakura, I do believe there were similar cases happening around eight years ago. Can you find out about that?

"No problem," She says, tapping away on her notebook.

Ryuji places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes firmly, saying nothing. Ren nods at him, appreciating the thought. The blonde then frowns. "Wait, eight years ago? Is this like the thing at Tatsumi Port Island?"

Akechi blinks. "Yes, that's exactly the name of the place! How did you know?"

"My relatives live there. Said something like people being real zombie-like and caring about not a damn thing, even their own lives, for a few years. Resolved on its own, too." Ryuji supplies, and that forces Ren to look up.

Akechi nods, but says nothing.

"Wait a second," Futaba looks up from her notebook. "Tatsumi Port Island?"

"Yeah. What?" Ryuji asks.

"Apathy Syndrome," She says, turning the laptop for everyone to see. "Back in 1999 there was an explosion of sort. Then there's series of people going into Apathy Syndrome. Just stop caring about things around them, so much so they can just walk into a traffic and get killed. Some even went as far as slipping into a vegetative state. Sounds familiar to you?"

"That's it!" Akechi snaps his fingers and point at the laptop before he walks over and looks at it a bit closer. Ren narrows his eyes — the symptoms Futaba described sound disgustingly accurate, even if he hadn't even seen the guy before the accident.

"Is this the beginning of something too big for us alone to handle?" He mutters. The Thieves say nothing to that, but the looks on their faces have him convinced that he just, in fact, hit the nail on the head. He sighs and says out a bit louder than he has intended. "Fuck."

"But at least we now got something we can work on," Akechi says. "Tatsumi Port Island. I have to make a trip to that place for a bit of work anyway, so I'll see if there's anything I can find."

"What work? Detective work?" Ren asks. He knows for a fact that Akechi's records are unblemished (since no one else knows who's behind all those Shutdowns), but he's backed by Shido, isn't he? Then how could he still find work —

"I still have my deduction skills, thank you very much," Akechi cuts his thoughts off dryly. Ren blinks and looks away. Goddamnit he's so perceptive.

Ryuji just looks back and forth at their exchanges (it's admittedly a bit disjointed) before he waves it off and says. "Then I guess we leave this to Akechi for now, huh? We should investigate the Mementos on our own during the meantime, too, I guess?"

"I agree," Kitagawa says, arms crossed. "And I propose we inform Narukami-san's group as well, see if they have any knowledge on this matter."

"Futaba," Ren says curtly.

"On it."

"This is one big mess, isn't it?" He says with a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. He then slaps his cheeks, hard enough to make the others jump. "We start by looking at this Apathy Syndrome. Futaba, see if there's anything or anyone else that's tied to the incident at Tatsumi Port Island. Makoto, help her out."

"Alright," Makoto says with a nod.

Ren turns to the rest of the team. "The rest of you are with me. Tomorrow we're investigating the Mementos again. With his suicide there might be a clue for us. You up for a fight, Yoshizawa?"

"Of course," She answers firmly.

"Then it's settled," He says, getting up to his feet. "Thanks for coming, guys. See you later."

There are choruses of goodbyes, and lingering gazes directed his ways. He pays them little mind as he waits until they all descended downstairs, save for Makoto (whom he intends on walking home) and, surprisingly, Akechi.

He frowns and looks at the Detective Prince. "Why are you still here?"

"…Just making sure," He says quietly before nodding at him and walking out. Ren's gaze follows until he disappeared, before he turns to Makoto.

"Makoto, I'll walk—"

"Can I just stay the night?" She interrupts suddenly. "I'll call Sis. Tell her what happened."

Sae already knows about the Thieves, after all. Although, he's still unsure whether to rope her along for this or not. But he trusts Makoto's judgement, so he nods and goes over to a pile of clothes and pulls out hers (don't even begin to ask him why it's there). "Here."

"Thanks."

"I'll stay at Futaba's tonight," Morgana says. Ren smiles at the not-cat and watches him hops out the window.

"Makoto," He calls, sitting on the old couch and patting the spot beside him. Makoto walks over and sits down. He puts his arms on the backseat, just a bit over her shoulders. He looks at her as she fumbles with her phone. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not," She says truthfully.

"Me neither," He says, leaning his head on hers.

It takes her a while to finally have the courage (or to calm herself down enough) to finally call her sister. The call is brief, and Makoto doesn't divulge much, but from her tone it seems like Sae would want and in-depth explanation later.

She sighs. "I'm going to explain all of this to Sis later. Is that okay?"

"Of course," He says. Her hand finds his and she grabs it tight, her palm sweating. He doesn't move from his position, as awkward as it feels. "Well, this blows."

"Mhm," She hums, tracing the scars on his hand with her fingers. "I'm going to have nightmares for a few weeks, aren't I?"

That wasn't really a question, and she shares his sentiment. Not exactly, though. "Makes that a few months. I can't believe I have all the luck in the world to see… that."

She laughs quietly. "At least we have each other."

"That, we do."

He closes his eyes, and relaxes against her.

This is going to be one long arduous road, isn't it?


"That's… concerning,"

Yu says after Rise shows him what Sakura and Shirogane had said. This Apathy Syndrome thing seems scarier than a few murders in Inaba years ago, and that's saying something.

"It's a good thing my gigs for at least a year or two is set in Tokyo," Rise says, huffing slightly. "Inoue-san is a godsend; he manages to secure me works that's within an hour of commute from Tokyo."

"He's the best manager," Yu agrees with a smile. He then looks down at his phone. "This Apathy Syndrome and the suicide victim Amamiya mentioned concerns me. If Shadows are affecting the real world…"

"Akechi-kun has already made a move on that," Rise says. "I asked Naoto-chan, she's looking into the connections right now. Tatsumi Port Island is notorious for housing some… questionable facilities."

"Right," He murmurs. "I tried going to Mementos the other day, even used Izanagi-no-Ookami. Nothing besides your everyday Shadows. Just mindless blobs loitering around."

"Next time you wanna go in, just give me a call," Rise says with a smile, her hand over his. He interlaces their fingers and squeezes her hand gently. "I'm sure I'd be able to locate stronger Shadows, or better yet… Shadows that know something useful."

"Yeah, looks like that's gonna be the way to go for us," He says. "Amagi's prepping for a temporary move to Tokyo. She had plans on studying MBA anyways so this is a good opportunity."

"I see! How about Chie-senpai?"

"Local gym trainer. Still trying to find a job here, but she has a few connections with friends from the police academy so I'm not worried," Yu says.

"That's good," Rise nods. "How are your studies going?"

"Not terrible," Yu says with a small chuckle. "But I still get teased every now and then because everyone on campus knows I'm dating you."

She laughs. Yu couldn't help but smile wider; her laughter is contagious. She leans in a bit closer. "I think, with how things are developing, we're going to get teased a hell lot more."

"Please don't remind me," Yu sighs. "I want this Persona business over with, but I guess that's not gonna happen anytime soon, huh?"

"I guess not."

"Oh! A surprise seeing you here, Rise-san!"

They turn to see a blonde twin-tailed Thief waving at Rise from the door. She waves back as the blonde skips closer, and Rise scoots over slightly. He nods at the girl. "Takamaki Ann, right?"

"Yep!" She chirps. "So he's your boyfriend. I mean, I can never tell! You're all so professional inside the Metaverse."

"Is that so?" He says, sipping his coffee as he waves for the waiter.

"You're always so cold to me on the job, Senpai," Rise pouts at him. Yu has never realized this before, but… was he that absorbed?

"Anyways," He coughs. "How're you guys holding up?"

"Not as good as we want, but we're hanging in there," She states truthfully. "Our leader's in a bit of a down, but we planned on investigating the Mementos again, since we found nothing today. We should coordinate our joint investigation again sometime."

"Sounds good," Yu nods. "And tell your leader he can leave some of the work to me. As a Senpai, I gotta make sure my Kouhai is okay."

"Thanks a bunch!" She says with a bright smile.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Rise asks, ordering her smoothie as well as Takamaki's.

"We just finished today's investigation," Takamaki explains. She does look a little worn out, Yu notes to himself. "Right now, Amamiya's… stressed. But he still manages. I'll force him to take time off until school starts, don't worry."

"That's good," He smiles. "Time off is also important. You can leave some of the work to me. College students are freer, well, sometimes."

"Alright, I'll tell him that. Thanks!" She grins.

"You're welcome."

.

Once Takamaki leaves, he decides to call someone directly.

He remembers the flash of green as the world freezes for a second. Most of his friends except Shirogane were asleep, so they wouldn't have known… and he's planning on asking someone about it.

Avoiding Rise's look by going to the bathroom, he waits for the other side to pick up, then he gets thrown around from one speaker to another, just as he's expected.

After ten minutes of getting redirected, his call finally lands on where he intends, and he doesn't need to wait long before someone pick up.

"It's kinda surprising, you calling me," The other drawls, voice groggy, but there's no real annoyance in it. "But hey, better than being lonely. So, what's up, Hero-kun?"

"Adachi-san," Yu says firmly. "There's something I would like to ask you."


She's so not getting any sleep.

Right here, right now, she's drowned inside stacks after stacks of reports. Even with one superhuman helper, she's not going to survive this if it keeps up.

At first, it's the Phantom Thieves, and then the whole fiasco at Shibuya. No problem, that was already dealt with. By the Thieves, no less. Then Yamagishi started reporting strange readings – sporadic appearances of powerful Shadows, spikes in their concentrations, and some other phenomenon. It started getting out of control at the beginning of March, where there were appearances of a stunningly powerful Shadow and another, equally powerful, unclassifiable entity, whose readings disappeared as soon as they came.

They've pinpointed the phenomenon to Tokyo, but that's about it. The two powerful entities are then reported again at Shibuya subway, and a large power spike appeared shortly afterwards. Then, silence – nothing more for them to work with.

"Mitsuru-san," The voice calls, derailing her train of thoughts. She looks up from the reports to see Aigis with a cup of tea in her hands. She places it down on the desk. "You should take a break."

"I wish I can," She says, rubbing her eyes. "I'm concerned about the reappearance of the Dark Hour, no matter how brief it is."

The android stays silent for a moment before she starts lifting the stacks of papers off her table. "I know, I'm as concerned as you are, but you cannot run yourself ragged and expect a good result."

"That's… true," She relents, putting down the report in her hands and looking out the window. "Alright, a break it is."

Aigis smiles. "I've already informed every members of the Shadow Operatives. Sanada-san and Yukari-san are already in Tokyo. Amada-san and Koromaru will be transferring to a university in Tokyo shortly, as per your instruction."

She nods. "That's good. Iori might take a few more days. How about their weapons?"

"Sent," The android responds. "They all have confirmed the arrival of the packages."

"At least that's done with," She sighs, standing up and walking towards the window overlooking the city. "What about the Persona Users?"

"From the planted bugs, it seems they're commencing an investigation of their own in a place called Mementos," Aigis informs, her pristine face sports an unusual frown. "They have not used the Evokers, however, so I assume they themselves have their ways of bringing out their Personas."

"For now, keep a tab on them. We'll need to contact them as soon as we can find enough information regarding… all of this." She says with a sigh.

"Roger."

A pause. Mitsuru knows sending them Evokers and wiring them some money are… suspicious, at best, but she needs their powers. And since her means of investigation is limited, she might or might not have done all of that to goad them to act.

It works, much to her relief. Their decisions to take the matters into their own hands solidify her beliefs that the team from Inaba and this group called Phantom Thieves are competent, and not bad people. However, what concerns her is the fact that both groups have access to this Metaverse, while she did not.

It annoys her.

"One thing, Mitsuru-san," Aigis says, her voice strange… there's a mix between annoyance and concern.

"What is it?"

"During the small period of the Dark Hour, I've confirmed the "feelings" of something missing that I've mentioned to you before," She begins, blue eyes looking directly at her. Mitsuru remembers the android saying she feels something amiss at the start of March – the same time the two powerful beings appeared – although she has never confirmed what it is.

To say it now means that it's something relating to either Personas or her Wild Card abilities.

Mitsuru doesn't like either being the case.

"And what is it?" She says, hands tensing around her arms, waiting for the answer.

"One of my Personas," She says, eyes hard. "Thanatos… is gone."

"…What?"

"I can summon any other Personas just fine," She quickly says, and that eases Mitsuru up a little bit. Aigis then continues. "I can summon Orpheus; I can still feel it. Even Messiah is there, although half of its body's crumbled and dusted, as if a part of it is missing. But Thanatos doesn't respond to my call. It doesn't exist."

"How is that possible?" She hisses.

"I don't know," She says. "All I know is that my Wild Card abilities are intact. The only thing missing is Thanatos. I propose we proceed with this in mind."

"Got it," She says, sighing. "For now—"

Suddenly, the world stops.

The sky turns green, the moon nowhere to be found. She turns to the clock, locked at exactly midnight. The AC, the lights, all stay still. She then looks at Aigis, her eyes wide.

"March 27th," She reads the calendar, then her eyes go to the wall-mounted clock. "Exactly midnight."

The green. The total halt of all devices. The eerie silence.

The Dark Hour.

Aigis nods. Mitsuru grabs the rapier that she keeps with her at all times, then opens the drawer. Her Evoker lies in there, silver glinting in the light of the Dark Hour.

"Aigis. Get Yamagishi."

"Understood."


Ren wakes up to Morgana sitting on his chest and pawing his face off.

Why the hell is he here, isn't he supposed to be at Futaba's? Or has Makoto's elongated stay annoyed him that much?

"Ow. Stop, Morgana," He says sleepily, swatting at the not-cat. He fumbles for this phone and grabs it—

Huh? Why's the screen black?

"Ren," Morgana says, his tone urgent. Ren picks up the underlying uneasiness and springs up.

Makoto is up already, and she's looking out the window. His eyes follow, to see the dark sky… but it's not black.

It's green.

The sky. Is fucking green.

"What the fuck?"


Remember me saying something about the three-part series? It goes into a full blown long fic (again), goddamnit.

I'll be posting that one tomorrow, so check it out if you're interested!

Also, this fic will go into a biweekly update schedule until further notice, to give me some room to breathe. I apologize in advance (for the cliffhanger, also), and see you again next time!